Interview by Kris Peters
What do you do as you near the twilight of an illustrious music career?
Set course for Australia, apparently!
After pushing 40 years in the music industry, English alternative rock outfit Pop Will Eat Itself have finally decided to bring their pasty white legs Down Under for the first show of their careers on our shores in February and March of next year. The loveable poms have promised to treat their neglected fans to a set of Greatest Hits, and, just to soften the blow, have invited UK indie/dance/rock outfit Jesus Jones to share in the fun with them.
It is an upbeat and lively union of bands, with Jesus Jones frontman Mike Edwards stopping in for a chat with HEAVY to get us acquainted.
We start by asking what delights Jesus Jones have in store for their Australian fans.
"You've put me on the spot there," he laughed. "Delights? Don't know if it's delights. It makes it sound like we should be bringing Frankincense and Myrrh (laughs). I was gonna say the same thing that we normally do, but it's not quite right… My strapline for this tour is 'all of the energy you're used to seeing, all the songs you wanna hear, but this time played better than they were in the past. How's that?"
In reality, either band could have come over here by themselves and pulled decent crowds around the country, so we quiz Mike as to why they chose to come together.
"They're a band that we have a lot of affinity with," he replied. "We've played with them in various guises before and done tours with them. Great bunch of guys, easy to get on with, plus, more than anything else, do you want to go to Australia? Hell yes!"
In the full interview, Mike tells us what we can expect from Jesus Jones' shows, being aware of your limitations as you grow older, the early days of the band and where they fit in, coming up with their eclectic sound, being part of a musical movement that changed the musical landscape, future plans and more.